"I managed to come upstairs. Smoke was so thick up there," Jones said.

Jones said his son jumped out of a window, and he caught him.

Three other residents in the building were taken to hospitals in stable condition. Residents said they think the Joneses prevented that number from being higher.

"All I seen was black smoke," resident Vicki Vance said. "Then my neighbor ... he knocked on the door for everyone to get out. That's the hero right there."

"They knocked on my door about six o'clock and told me there was a fire," resident Don Buewley said. "I looked out the back door and you could see embers falling."

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but officials said it was suspicious.

"We don't want to hamper the investigation, but we're working on it," said Ruben Hernandez of HFD's arson division.

Officials said 16 families were displaced by the fire. The American Red Cross is helping them.

"We need to get them on their feet," said Debra Wrenn with the American Red Cross. "We've been in touch with the apartment manager. He's trying to work with other complexes in the area to see if they can work out some kind of deals."

Photos: Southeast Houston apartment fire

Three people are hurt when a fire, which investigators say is suspicious, breaks out at a southeast Houston apartment complex.

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